KHON KAEN, Thailand (Reuters) - Talks on freer trade must be speeded up, WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi told APEC trade ministers on Tuesday, as he expressed optimism the EU would shift to a more flexible stance on the sticky issue of farm subsidies.
The Director-General of the World Trade Organization said he depended on the support of the APEC ministers to meet the goals of the Doha round of trade negotiations, which began in 2001 and are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2004.
"Time is our enemy number one," Supachai said at the meeting in Thailand, pointing out that after the next round of WTO ministerial talks in Mexico in September, there would be around one and a quarter years to meet the Doha timetable.
Ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose economies account for more than 47 percent of world trade and over 60 percent of global gross domestic product, are working on their position to take to the talks in Cancun, Mexico.
Supachai told reporters APEC ministers and other WTO members needed to work out a framework for key negotiations on tariff cuts by September to ensure the Cancun meeting was a success.
"The ministers need to work on modalities of how to reduce tariffs on agricultural and industrial products and services before Cancun," Supachai said.
"The APEC members want to see a concrete program for Cancun and I'm writing a draft for consultations in Geneva," he said, referring to the Swiss city where WTO ambassadors are based.
On Monday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told Reuters that Europe must reform its agricultural policy if the Doha round of negotiations was to be successful.
"And if the European Union moves on that issue, and they are trying to do so in the month of June, then I think it gives us some important impetus for the Cancun negotiations," Zoellick said.
Supachai said he was confident the European Union wanted freer trade in farm goods. He said President Jacques Chirac had indicated that France, the main defender of EU farm subsidies in the past, was willing to budge on the issue.
"Chirac said he supported agricultural liberalisation," said Supachai, who met with the French president at the G8 summit in Evian, France, over the weekend.
"I've consulted with several EU countries and I'm confident they will support this."
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